Blackfoot Lodge Tales eBook

George Bird Grinnell
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 372 pages of information about Blackfoot Lodge Tales.

Blackfoot Lodge Tales eBook

George Bird Grinnell
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 372 pages of information about Blackfoot Lodge Tales.

Then K[)u]t-o’-yis went on, and after a while came to where a woman kept a sliding place; and at the far end of it there was a rope, which would trip people up, and when they were tripped, they would fall over a high cliff into deep water, where a great fish would eat them.  When this woman saw him coming, she cried out, “Come over here, young man, and slide with me.”  “No,” he replied, “I am in a hurry.”  She kept calling him, and when she had called the fourth time, he went over to slide with her.  “This sliding,” said the woman, “is a very pleasant pastime.”  “Ah!” said K[)u]t-o’-yis, “I will look at it.”  He looked at the place, and, looking carefully, he saw the hidden rope.  So he started to slide, and took out his knife, and when he reached the rope, which the woman had raised, he cut it, and when it parted, the woman fell over backward into the water, and was eaten up by the big fish.

Again he went on, and after a while he came to a big camp.  This was the place of a man-eater.  K[)u]t-o’-yis called a little girl he saw near by, and said to her:  “Child, I am going into that lodge to let that man-eater kill and eat me.  Watch close, therefore, and when you can get hold of one of my bones, take it out and call all the dogs, and when they have all come up to you, throw it down and cry out, ’K[)u]t-o’-yis, the dogs are eating your bones!’”

Then K[)u]t-o’-yis entered the lodge, and when the man-eater saw him, he cried out, “O’ki, O’ki," and seemed glad to see him, for he was a fat young man.  The man-eater took a large knife, and went up to K[)u]t-o’-yis, and cut his throat, and put him into a great stone kettle to cook.  When the meat was cooked, he drew the kettle from the fire, and ate the body, limb by limb, until it was all eaten up.

Then the little girl, who was watching, came up to him, and said, “Pity me, man-eater, my mother is hungry and asks you for those bones.”  So the old man bunched them up together and handed them to her.  She took them out, and called all the dogs to her, and threw the bones down to the dogs, crying out, “Look out, K[)u]t-o’-yis; the dogs are eating you!” and when she said that, K[)u]t-o’-yis arose from the pile of bones.

Again he went into the lodge, and when the man-eater saw him, he cried out, “How, how, how! the fat young man has survived,” and seemed surprised.  Again he took his knife and cut K[)u]t-o’-yis’ throat, and threw him into the kettle.  Again, when the meat was cooked, he ate it up, and again the little girl asked for the bones, which he gave her; and, taking them out, she threw them to the dogs, crying, “K[)u]t-o’-yis, the dogs are eating you!” and K[)u]t-o’-yis again arose from the bones.

When the man-eater had cooked him four times, he again went into the lodge, and, seizing the man-eater, he threw him into the boiling kettle, and his wives and children too, and boiled them to death.

The man-eater was the seventh and last of the bad animals and people who were destroyed by K[)u]t-o’-yis.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Blackfoot Lodge Tales from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.